I got these cause I just love the figures and the detail in them! I have taken them to a couple of friends who own and run Antique stores and everybody thinks they're ivory. I have no idea how old they are or if they really are ivory. If anybody has a clue i would love to hear it. Thanks.

Ty Kroll, 3 years agoThey look like ivory to me. The hole in the bottom of that one red piece is a little disconcerting. I know these sets are often faked. I don't think that's what it looks like when a set fails the "hot needle test" but you might try hot needle testing these yourself just to make sure it doesn't make another hole. It's certainly a really good fake ivory grain if these are some kind of plastic/bone composite. If it was my set I'd feel safe jabbing a hot needle into it just to make sure. Canton China (like everyone is saying I'm sure) late 19th or early 20th century. The main problem with these is you're not going to be able to prove they're antique if they are and get a Cites license and that can bring down the value if you ever want to sell even keeping them in US (that makes it illegal to move them outside the US.) You might want to look on eBay see if you can get lucky and match a replacement pawn. There's still a ton of ivory sold as ox bone on eBay these days. Otherwise you can get a restorer to make a new pawn, but it'd be pretty expensive and I'm not the one to appraise the set and advise if it'd be worth taht, but $15... jeeze.

chessspy, 3 years agoTy is right, except it certainly looks like ivory to me, you just need to check and see if the cross hatching of the ivory shows anywhere. These type of pawns sell all the time on ebay there are some now for sale I think. The Biltmore Estate in Asheville has a set like this which they think was owned by Napoleon, (It very definitely wasn't he was sent a Canton set whilst on Elba but it was much larger and had 'Ns' carved on each piece and he wasn't allowed to keep it anyway and had to give it to his son) and they sell plastic repros for $300 so do check it is 'right' they were made by the thousand in the latter part of the 20thc and on onto early 20thc.
Best regards
Chessspy

chessspy, 3 years agoOh BTW The holes are just the nerve channel which runs down the tusk the Cantonese carvers used up as much of the ivory as they could because it was so expensive.
Chessspy